Pope's early life gets uplifting TV treatment

August 15, 2005|By Sid Smith, Tribune arts critic

Few 20th Century lives are as compelling as that of Karol Wojtyla, the Polish actor the world came to know as John Paul II.

Television chronicles of his extraordinary life journey are just beginning, with both ABC and CBS planning major treatments. But meanwhile, the plucky Hallmark Channel snagged the first: "The Man Who Became Pope" (7 p.m. Monday on Hallmark), a film by Italian director Giacomo Battiato, traces Wojtyla's life as a young man in World War II through his 1978 election as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The approach is respectful to the point of worship; this is not a critical examination of Wojtyla's strengths and weaknesses. "The Man Who Became Pope" instead plays almost as a piece of submitted evidence in the campaign to canonize Wojtyla, a religious leader depicted as unshakable in his Gandhi-like devotion to charity as the best means to defeat even the cruelest of enemies.

While his admirers won't mind the unadulterated holiness, other viewers also may be seduced by the arresting, uplifting arc of Wojtyla's life story. We're all familiar with his days as pontiff. But "The Man Who Became Pope" tells the gripping tale of an obscure young individual's forbearance and courage in the face of the worst evils afflicting the 20th Century.

Not that the movie lacks faults. In its early segments especially, the plodding narrative is almost too historical and programmatic, a static form of storytelling more appropriate in a history textbook than a film. At four hours, it's also long, and, though mostly shot in English, as an Italian project, there are moments of awkward dubbing.

But that European influence proves in the end a great strength. This has the look and austere beauty of a European movie, not an American-made TV mini-series, and that conjures up the atmosphere and setting of Wojtyla's life with great authenticity. We see him risking his life to help the resistance, hiding underground to participate as an actor in banned political theater, working in a quarry and conniving to help his Jewish friends survive the Nazis.

But the movie really takes off in its second half, portraying Wojtyla as a true prophet of peaceful protest, a stoic devout who never wavers in his belief that love is the mightiest weapon of all. There are some striking visual moments, shots of Wojtyla weeping in the rain at his father's grave or haunting images of ghetto life under Nazi oppression. But Wojtyla's inner journey proves the movie's most compelling attribute, epitomized by Wojtyla's Christ-like treatment of a young student who spies on him for the Communists and, like so many others worldwide, eventually falls under Wojtyla's charismatic spell.

Though graced with fine performers throughout, the movie belongs to Piotr Adamczyk, whose mien and manner are perfect for the young John Paul II. It's not easy portraying sainthood, but Adamczyk makes Wojtyla down-to-earth, believable, intriguing and ultimately quite wondrous.